The Senate on Friday, after it had approved a continuing resolution to keep the federal government operating, dove back into the 2006 defense authorization bill but scarcely broke the surface, stopping work in mid-afternoon, when it adjourned for the day. Lawmakers won’t take it up again until 3 p.m. on Monday. President Bush signed the continuance measure, so Senators have until Nov. 18 to bring closure, we hope, to this latest budget saga.
Today’s armament maintainers are tasked with performing flightline (O-Level) maintenance with an assortment of legacy test sets that greatly limit the ability to quickly and efficiently verify armament system readiness, diagnose failures, and ultimately return the aircraft to full mission...